Recent Updates

Airports Eyed As Hubs For Urban Mobility Service

Although the eVTOL movement has focused on so-called urban mobility, one of the many contenders in the market is proposing using existing airports as hubs for its future service in Germany. Lilium, which hopes to launch service using five-seat passenger drones in 2025, has partnered with Dusseldorf and Cologne/Bonn Airports to investigate using them as […]

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Drone Carries Freight To Offshore Oil Platform

A Camcopter S-100 drone made the first commercial drone delivery to an offshore oil platform in late August and it might be the beginning of a major industry. The helicopter drone flew a 3-D printed part from Norway to a rig located about 60 miles off the coast. The flight was conducted without any special […]

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Manned eVTOL Takes Test Hop In Japan

A Japanese company has completed what it says is the first manned test of a single-seat octocopter in the country. SkyDrive did a four-minute hop with the SD-03 electric VTOL vehicle at the Toyota Test Field on Aug. 28. The pilot was at the controls but computers helped him maintain stability. There were also backup […]

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Astronaut Jerry Carr Dead At 88

Astronaut Gerald “Jerry” Carr passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. Selected for NASA’s astronaut program in April 1966, Carr performed Capcom duties during the Apollo 8 and Apollo 12 missions and was involved in the development and testing of the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) used by Apollo flight crews. On Nov. 16, […]

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Special Delivery

There are events in your life where you will always remember the time, place and what you were doing when they happened: September 11, 2001; your first solo; and, for me, a phone call and proposal from an air-racing legend. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and I was putting gas in my car in […]

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FAA Looks At Anti-Drone Systems

The FAA has announced it is looking at technologies to clear “rogue drones” from the airspace near airports after a few collisions and some close calls, including one that might have involved Air Force One. The agency will evaluate at least 10 systems designed to disable or neutralize drones in trials that will initially be […]

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AI Beats Human In Mock Dogfights

An artificial intelligence algorithm beat an “experienced” F-16 pilot in five straight simulated dogfights in a project designed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Aug. 20. The pilot was up against an AI system named Heron and the two duked it out in a Second World War-style forward firing gun battle. The human […]

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Pilots On Board To Develop Pilotless Technology

A California company is taking a novel approach to autonomous aviation by making human pilots an integral part of its development. While many of the more advanced drone hopefuls have created elaborate clean-sheet designs, San Francisco startup Xwing is heaping new technology into a proven design with room for a human to act as pilot […]

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Agencies Issue Advisory On Drone Detection Tech

The Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have issued a joint advisory designed to clarify federal laws and regulations potentially applicable to “the use of capabilities to detect and mitigate threats posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations.” The “Advisory on the Application […]

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Colorado Town Approves Drone Flying Park

The town of Buena Vista, Colorado, unanimously approved a concept for an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drone) flying park on Tuesday. The drone park will be divided into four zones based on activity with areas for basic training, qualification operations, obstacle navigation and racing events. The proposal was put forward by the Central Colorado UAS Club. […]

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